World Happen?: Bill Gates House

Most people would assume that the richest man in the world, Bill Gates, would live in a house that makes P Diddy’s house look like a cardboard box in Harlem. I can’t quite confirm the speculation, but I can confirm that Bill Gate’s has one hell of a pad (as you can see from the teaser snap above); it’s worth a few pennies, too. There is one thing that is safe to assume, the place is filled to the brim with gadgets and other useless sci-fi junk that is certain to make any Star Trek fan wet their pants.
So let’s take a look at what, where and how the richest man in the world lives…

A sneak peak inside Bill Gates house

To kick things off, let me show you teaser of inside Bill Gates House. Apparently this is a famous snap of a room inside moneybags crib…I’m not entirely sure how authentic this is, but apparently it’s real. Regardless, I don’t know about you, I think it looks swell, but i’m not sure how safe i’d feel with sharks and killer whales floating around so closely to home…what if the glass cracks?

Location

Bill Gates’ house is a large earth-sheltered mansion in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. To please the crowd that see Gatesy as a sexual object (I hear there is a huge bucket load of you out there), 1835 73rd Ave NE, Medina, WA 98039, is his exact address. If anyone plans on stalking moneybags, be careful, apparently the place is protected by robots that are equipped with lazor guns. No, really.

Design

The house was designed by a guy called James Cutler, the best-known architect of Northwest Style, apparently. “Pacific lodge” is the chosen style for the residence. What does that mean exactly? Well, it’s just made from huge wooden panels to give it a “cabin lodge” effect from what I can make out. Can anyone explain further?
There has been lot of speculation that the house was designed on a Macintosh. I’m guessing only computer geeks will “speculate” about which type of computer the Microsoft Mogal used to design it. Normal people wouldn’t give a damn. I’m sure if you search on Google for long enough, you’ll find someone called Howard who has whipped up an article in his parents’ basement, on how Bill Gates backstapped his own company by using a Mac to design his house.
Pictures of the Gates’ complex are both private and copyrighted- what a shame. There are a lot of pictures available, but they’re mainly of the building exterior and the grounds. Additionally, information regarding the house is quite limited.

Features

The house occupies 50,000 square feet on 5.15 acre land. Garage space and outbuildings occupy an additional 16,000 square feet
A 17 × 60 foot (5.1 × 18.2 metre) swimming pool, which has an underwater music system and a fossil-motif floor
Swimmers can dive under a glass wall and emerge outdoors by a terrace
Lights automatically come on when you enter a room
Speakers are hidden beneath the wallpaper to allow music to follow from room to room
Visitors to the residence are surveyed and given a microchip upon entrance. This small chip sends signals throughout the house, and a given room’s temperature and other conditions will change according to preset user preferences
grand staircase
large private library with a domed reading room
formal dining room
exercise room
outdoor sports courts
Property records indicate eight bedrooms and four building levels
Much of the Bill Gates house is built underground into the hill, so the house looks smaller than it actually is.
The beach sand on the bank of the lake is not from Lake Washington, it is barged in annually from a tropical beach in St. Lucia
The wood columns from main floor to roof in entry area are over 70 feet tall
Some of the interior passage doors weigh over 800 lbs, but are balanced for easy use
The roofing is stainless steel
Hidden cameras are everywhere, including the interior stone walls
Gates insisted on saving a 40 year old maple adjacent to the driveway. The tree is monitored electronically 24 hours per day via computer. If it seems dry, it gets just the right amount of water automatically delivered
All woodwork is flawless. Much of the woodwork is of various rare types from all over the world – imported especially for this house
The theater (underground in a concrete shell) is the most state of the art theatre in the world according to specialty contractor

Worth

My mate Billy actually purchased the plot of land for $2million back in 1988. After 7 years of intensive makeovers; according to King County public records, as of 2005, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $200 million, and the annual property tax is $991,000. I imagine it’s probably worth more than that now.